We invite organizations to sign on and support the statement, which denounces that the RSPO, since it was created 14 years ago, has been a tool that served the corporate interests of the oil palm sector

Original version by Ricardo Carrere – updated by the WRM in 2013.
Oil palm is a traditional native crop for West and Central African communities, who are used to either plant them on their lands or to collect fruits, leaves or sap...

The forest of the Congo Basin expands over an area of continuous tropical rainforest cover only second to that of the Amazon forest. The region’s forests are found in Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Gabon,...

By Chris Lang
The area of industrial tree plantations is expanding in the global South. Vast areas of monocultures have been established to feed raw material to the pulp and paper industry. This report investigates the role of European...

Timber plantations in southern Africa are concentrated in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, but they are also expanding in Mozambique. There are smaller areas in Angola, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. In South Africa, the largest areas...

Oil palm and rubber plantations are very similar in many respects, but there is something that clearly differentiates them: oil palm is a native species in many West African countries –and part of the culture of local peoples- while...

Selection of articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement, addressing the impacts of the oil palm plantations in the forestss.
Oil Palm. From Cosmetics to Biodiesel, Colonization Lives...

By the World Rainforest Movement
This book gathers articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) regarding indigenous peoples and their struggles in defence of the forest. These peoples are...

Forests are one of the most valuable eco-systems in the world, containing over 60 per cent of the world’s biodiversity. This biodiversity has multiple social and economic values, apart from its intrinsic value, varying from the...

This book gathers a selection of articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement (WRM), addressing the issue of the processes leading to the destruction of African forests and the struggles developed...

Press release.
Redmanglar Internacional questions the fact that shrimp farms, fish culture ponds and salt mines are considered by the RAMSAR Convention as artificial wetlands.
These industries must be classified in the listings of...

In late 2013, a group of representatives of African, Indonesian and international NGOs met with members of La Via Campesina and the African Biodiversity Network in Calabar, Nigeria, to address the massive expansion of industrial oil palm...

Also available in French
We, members of communities affected by industrial monoculture oil palm plantations, including peasant movements, as well as other civil society organizations from Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia,...

The NO REDD in Africa Network gathered here in Maputo Mozambique, on 26 August 2013 during the occasion of an international workshop on REDD with participants from Mozambique, other African countries, North America and South America...

On November 12, with the endorsement of organizations from five continents, Friends of the Earth International and World Rainforest Movement publish an open statement denouncing the failure of the RSPO to eliminate the violence and destruction that oil palm plantations.

We invite organizations to sign on and support the statement, which denounces that the RSPO, since it was created 14 years ago, has been a tool that served the corporate interests of the oil palm sector

The short film “Sacred Voices”, supported by the African Biodiversity Network and the Gaia Foundation, shares the messages of eight traditional Sacred Site Custodians from Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa and Uganda. Sacred Sites in...

This report aims to draw attention to violations and threats that environmental justice defenders in Central Africa are facing, specifically in the Congo Basin. The report is based on two studies. The first concerns the legal framework for...

A video produced by GRAIN shows how rural women in West Africa are working to protect traditional palm oil production in the face of the destructive expansion of industrial oil palm plantations.
See the video...

Women, communities say NO to the expansion of oil palm plantations and industrial palm oil
Each year on 17 April, peasants and food sovereignty advocates commemorate the International day of peasant struggle. Twenty years have passed...

We are 40 participants who have united in Mundemba, Cameroon, for an international workshop on the tactics and strategies of oil palm companies, from 28 to 31 January 2016. We have gathered to share our experiences from Cameroon, West and...

Women resist industrial palm oil (Photo: JVE-Cameroun)
Considering that the aspiration to human dignity is a common ideal for humankind, and that the United Nations Charter asserts this aspiration in its preamble and in the Universal...

A report from the Rainforest Foundation UK, shows how attempts of community based forest management in the Congo Basin thus far have not been able to transfer meaningful rights or benefits to local communities. Only around 1% of the total...

Most of the Congo Basin’s forests have been divided up into concessions, conservation areas and community use, with most of Central Africa’s forests being under industrial forest concessions. Forest-dependant communities have been...

Food cannot be grown without water. In Africa, one in three people endure water scarcity and climate change makes things worse. Africa’s sophisticated indigenous water systems are being destroyed by large-scale land grabs amidst claims...

Booming global demand for palm oil and limited room for the industry’s expansion in Asia have led large palm oil producers to look towards Africa. Companies are also betting on an explosion in demand from the European Union for palm oil...

This report from the organization Corner House explores the question “What’s the alternative to current energy systems?” in a context of a growing climate crisis and increasing uncertainty over the future of fossil fuels. In energy...

The NGO network ECA Watch is mapping social movements’ alternative proposals to the large-scale infrastructure projects, including water, energy or transport infrastructure. The aim is to spread information and proposals, and to...

A global study carried out by the Poverty and Environment Network has helped in understanding the role forests play in enhancing people’s livelihoods, confirming that forests do provide an important source of rural income, but...

Producing cheap palm oil comes at a high price: destruction of rainforests, labour exploitation, and brutal land grabbing. With lands in Indonesia and Malaysia becoming more difficult for palm oil companies to acquire, attention is...

Women from all corners of the Southern African region descended on Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, to participate in the People’s Summit. They aimed to share their experiences on how they have been affected either by decisions made by governments...

The documentary explains how generation after generation, communities in Africa have maintained and defended their Sacred Natural Sites as critical places within forests, mountains, rivers, and water springs, which are of cultural,...

By SERVINDI .
While the world’s governments debate the catastrophic consequences of global warming, a trading structure of global scope threatens to establish a new form of subjugation in Asia and Africa, by appropriating one of the...

Around the world ‘development’ is robbing tribal people of their land, self-sufficiency and pride and leaving them with nothing. “There you go” is a short, satirical film, from Survival International, that tells the story of how...

Friends of the Earth Africa.
Commemoration of saro-wiwa murder reinforces demand to wean off dirty energy.
NOVEMBER 10, 2013  As the world commemorates the anniversary of the murder of playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, remembrance...

We have produced an interactive map that sumarizes some of the information gathered in the publication “Oil palm in Africa: past, present and future scenarios“. The publication contains a general introduction to the issue of oil...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 29, 2013
Contact: NnimmoBassey +216 21003908 nnimmo@eraction.org
Outraged by the rampant land grabs and neocolonialism of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest degradation), Africans at the...

New report: “Recognising Sacred Natural Sites and Territories in Kenya: An Analysis of how the Kenyan Constitution, National and International Laws can Support the Recognition of Sacred Natural Sites and their Community Governance...

Continuing with the communications for September 21st, this time we would like to share with all of you a collection of videos that we have prepared together with GRAIN, on the impacts of large scale industrial oil palm plantations. The...

Industrial oil palm plantations are rapidly expanding, not only in Liberia. In many African countries expansion projects are happening and plans are announced. Everywhere they go, the companies promise jobs and development.
Produced by the...